OFF WITH THE OLD LOVE

133
JOSEPHINE

TO THE EMPRESS

WARSAW, January 23, 1807.

I HAVE received your letter of January 15.! can't possibly
allow a woman to undertake the journey here. The roads are
too bad—unsafe, and deep in mud. Go back to Paris; be
happy and cheerful; and perhaps I will come soon. Your
remark, that you married a husband in order to live with
him, makes me smile. I thought, in my ignorance, that the
wife was made for the husband, and the husband for the
country, the family, and glory. Forgive my ignorance.
There is always something one can learn from the fine
ladies of to-day.

Good-bye, my dear. Remember how much it costs me
not to let you come. Say to yourself, it shows how much he
cares for me.

[CERF, 99. His real reason for not wanting her at Warsaw is seen in
the next group of letters.]

134

MARIE
TO MADAME WALEWSKA

WARSAW, January, 1807.

i

I SAW no one but you, I admired no one but you, I want
no one but you. Answer me at once, and assuage the
impatient passion of

N.

ii

Didn't you like me, Madame? I had reason to hope you
might. ... Or perhaps I was wrong. Whilst my ardour is

167